


Beyond Ever After

by muffin_song



Category: Into the Woods - Sondheim/Lapine
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-22 03:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/605066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffin_song/pseuds/muffin_song
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It may not have been the happily ever they once imagined, but that didn't mean they couldn't try.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beyond Ever After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Misachan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misachan/gifts).



Once upon a different time, in a small house at the edge of the woods there lives a Baker with his infant son, a former princess, a young girl with a red hood, and the lad Jack.

It was only the night before that the Witch told them that the end was coming, that this was the last midnight. In his weakest, darkest moments the Baker believed her. And yet together they had been victorious, and the sun has risen once more. He, his son, the princess, and the two children are still standing, still breathing. Each feels their losses keenly, but they are fiercely grateful to be alive. 

The Baker’s son sleeps silently in his arms. It amazes him still that a life so vibrant can still exist when there is so much destruction around them. As long as he has breath in his body, the Baker will do everything and anything in his power to raise him as best he can.

Of course immediately after the Giant’s defeat the practical concerns must be dealt with. The Baker has welcomed the others into his home, but his father’s cottage has sustained heavy damage. The first day they are only capable of pushing away rubble and covering the damaged places in the roof with whatever they can find nearby. The Baker doesn’t have it in his heart to protest when Red Riding Hood takes his wife’s apron to cover a particularly drafty hole. The wind is cold at night, but when the rain comes they are dry. The Baker insists that Red Riding Hood and Cinderella take his wife’s bed while he and Jack sleep on the floor. Despite everything that has happened he falls quickly into a dreamless sleep.

Their progress is slow but steady as the days pass. Debris is scattered both inside and outside the walls of their home. At first the Baker is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of chaos around them. How could so much be destroyed so quickly? But Cinderella is practical and neatly separates what is salvageable from what cannot be saved. The Baker is grateful for her lack of sentimentality. The former princess is equal measures efficient and kind. She is as quick as to tell Jack and Red to stop bickering as she is to soothe the baby. If Cinderella resents the hardships that come with her return to peasant life, she certainly does not show it.

The Baker is still haunted by the time (however brief) that he was prepared to abandon his son. He is now reluctant to let him out of his sight. When the baby cries, he remembers his wife’s words and tries cooing or singing or rocking the infant gently. But sometimes even that is not enough, and he is relieved when Cinderella takes him off his hands for a few moments. He tells her again and again how grateful he is for her touch with children. Cinderella just laughs and says that she too is making it up as she goes along.

Red Riding Hood emerges from the wood one day with her old friend the Woodcutter, and he helps them fashion new beams for the roof from a fallen tree. Setting the new roof takes all of their strength and the Baker’s muscles ache by the end of it. But for the first time since the Giant’s destruction began, his cottage looks like a home and not a mere shelter from the wind. Afterward the Baker quietly retrieves his wife’s apron from the hole it temporarily patched. One side of the cloth is mottled from the rain, but the other still smells faintly of flour and his wife’s hair. He hangs it over his son’s cradle.

One morning, Cinderella returns to the cottage with the town blacksmith and several of his apprentices. With his oven damaged in the Giant’s attack, they barely have enough coin to feed themselves, let alone to hire the work of three grown men. Then the Baker notices with alarm that Cinderella’s beautiful jeweled wedding ring is gone from her finger. When he protests, she just laughs and says that she has no more need of it. 

The Baker knows how to use an oven, but certainly not how to craft one. The blacksmith and his apprentices spend the next few days taking measurements, going back and forth from town, and creating a great deal of noise. But by the end of it his oven has been repaired. The adults and children alike cheer the first time it successfully catches fire within, and even the baby giggles with delight at the dancing flame. They sleep warmly that night.

The Baker wakes the next morning before first light to knead bread. Some small portion of flour and yeast has survived, and he is giddy to finally put it to use. He finds himself humming as he performs his work. By the time the sun has fully risen, the cottage is enveloped in the smell of bread. It makes for a simple breakfast, but they are all cheery for the small taste of fresh, warm food.

Red Riding Hood (who wakes considerably later) places several loaves in her basket and skips off toward the village. She returns in the evening with several coins. As the Baker counts them, he wonders if the villagers look down on him for his ill luck – surely several loaves of bread would fetch more than this? But then the Baker notices Red running her hands over the edges of her cloak over and over. Red reaches into her basket and shyly produces three sticky buns. The Baker and Cinderella had quietly discussed that morning what they would buy with the few coins from selling the bread. So much still needs to be repaired or replaced. Jack looks at him, waiting for his reaction. Red does not meet his eyes.

The sugar on the buns glistens. The Baker realizes that other than the scraps this morning, he cannot remember the last time he ate anything besides scavenged berries or stale bread. He finds himself licking his lips involuntarily. He opens his mouth to say something, but then he catches sight of Jack and Cinderella. They too look ready to pounce.

Finally the Baker lets out a laugh and the others soon follow suit. Red Riding Hood’s guilt quickly transforms into eager anticipation. She looks more like a child than she has in weeks. It lightens his heart to see her like this. “Well then,” he says. “I suppose we are going straight to dessert.” He cuts the pastries into equal portions to share. He recognizes the spice that has been used to give these pastries their distinct flavoring, and he considers what he can make in the coming weeks. 

After a moment he splits off a piece of his own portion for his son. The baby has only just started to grow teeth, but he is able to suck at the sugar. He squeals happily at his first taste. The baker breaks off another piece for him, only to find that Red has offered up a portion of his own. After they have run out Jack makes silly faces at the baby, and he laughs in delight.

His “happily ever after” has disappeared along with this wife, and his heart still aches with the absence she left behind. Perhaps it always will. She had told him to be father and mother to their child. He is unsure if he alone has the strength. But looking around at the people who now share his roof, he wonders if together they can fulfill her final wish.


End file.
